Pallet rack



Filed Feb. 7. 1966 IE51 ILUIZZELIUTIJE QFJ E I.

K. MQCONNELL PALLET RACK 2 Sheets-Sheet'l Oct. 24,1967

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United States Patent 3,348,698 PALLET RACK Kennedy McConnell, River-dale, IIL, assignor to Interlake Steel Corporation, Chicago, 11]., a corporation of New York Filed Feb. 7, 1966, Ser. No. 525,421 3 Claims. (Cl. 21124) This invention relates to the art of pallet rack structures of a type employing vertical support members which are provided with detachable horizontal beams on which the stored loads are directly supported and particularly relates to a pallet rack structure especially suited for storage of round or cylindrical objects, such as tires.

Storage racks for cylindrical objects, such as tires, have been used for many years. They ordinarily consist of an upright rack structure having end walls on upright members which support either fixed or detachable shelves or beam members bridged between them at different vertical levels. Ordinarily, the tire or object rests upon one of the shelves or bridges between two beam members and also may bear against the back wall of the structure in order to keep the tires in proper neat alignment.

Some of the tire rack structures are relatively expensive because they employ substantial amounts of materials. Others have a further disadvantage that they are not adjustable. Their shelves or beams are secured at fixed levels and this limits their usefulness by minimizing their versatility. It is the principal object of this invention to provide an improved pallet rack type support structure for tires or other round or cylindrical objects which employs a minimum amount of material and has adjustability of its beam supports 50 that it can support objects at certain levels and be readusted to support them or other objects at different levels as required.

It is another object of this invention to provide such a pallet rack type structure which is relatively simple to assemble and disassemble and to adjust.

It is another object of the invention to provide a rack structure with common structural members separating it into two bays in back to back relationship with horizontal support members independently adjustable to different levels in each bay.

It is another object to provide a rack structure of the type mentioned which employs horizontal members providing suitable support for cylindrical or round objects, both beneath the objects and behind them, with a minimum number of horizontal members.

It is still another object of the invention to provide a two bay type rack structure as mentioned provided with beam supports which readily adapt to improved direct support of cylindrical or round objects or to the use interchangeably of shelving members for the convenient support of other shaped objects.

Other objects and advantages of the invention should become apparent upon reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 shows a perspective view of a preferred embodiment of rack structure embodying the features of this invention;

FIG. 2 shows a secttional view taken through the center of the rack structure of FIG. 1 as viewed along the line 2--2 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary plan view of the right end of the structure as viewed along the line 3-3 of FIG. 1; and

FIG. 4 shows a reduced in size fragmentary sectional view similar to the lower portion of the structure shown in FIG. 2, except that a shelf unit is shown on one side of the structure.

The rack structure 1 consists of two ladder-type end upright members 2 and 3. Each of them consists of three vertical channel shaped columns 4, 5 and 6 which are provided with upper and lower front to back members 7 and 8, respectively, which join them together. The upper and lower ends of the uprights 5 are notched to permit the members 7 and 8 to be recessed within them so that they rest flush with the upper and lower ends of these members 5. The ends of the members 7 and 8 are dimensioned to fit within the space of longitudinal openings 9 provided in each upright member. Each of these end members 2 and 3 is provided with two diagonal braces 10 and 11 and a half length horizontal brace 12. Other variations of bracing are permissible, depending upon the degree of rigidity required for the particular application.

Each of the uprights 4 and 6 is provided with a double row of openings 13 along its outer face. The intermediate upright members 5 are also provided with two rows of similar openings 13. The levels of the openings 13 in the upright members 4, 5 and 6 of one end member 2 correspond to the levels of the openings in the uprights 4, 5 and 6 of the end member 3.

Mounted between the uprights 4 are three beams 14, 15 and 16 and mounted between the uprights 6 are beams 17, 18 and 19. Mounted between the uprights 5 are three additional beams 20, 21, and 22. Eachof the beams is provided with two L-shaped end plates 23, one secured at each end of a beam. Each of these end plates 23 is provided with two holes 24 which accommodate bolts 25 to secure the end plates to the uprights 4, 5 and 6. The holes 24 are spaced from each other by the same distances as the vertical spacing of the holes 13 and each end plate 23 is secured to an upright 4, 5 or 6 by passing the bolts 25 through aligned openings 13 and 24 and thena nut is secured onto the bolt to draw the end plate 23v tightly against the upright 4, 5 or 6. Although round openings 13 are shown and nuts and bolts are used to secure the end flange to the upright members 4, 5 and 6, other fastening techniques are available and suitable. For example, the bolts 25 can be replaced with headed studs which are fastened securely to the flanges 23 and the headed studs can be secured to the upright members 4, 5 and 6 by employing key shaped openings instead of the round openings 13. Such a structure is well known and disclosed in U.S. Patent 3,070,237 issued to Thomas J. Fullerton and William Schroeder on Dec. 25, '1962.

Although the beams 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 and 19 are identical, the center beams 20, 21 and 22 are slightly different. In FIG. 2 the difference isapparent where it is evident that the six beams mentioned are all connected to their end plates 23 at a slight angle from. the vertical. The beams 20, 21 and 22 are connected to their end plates in a vertical direction. The reason for this is so that tires or other round or cylindrical objects 25 resting on the beams 14-19 will have fiat surfaces 14a-19a against .which to bear, rather than corner edges of the beams which would be thecase if the beams. were connected vertically with respect to the end plates 23. As to the beams 20, 21 and 22 being connected vertically, it is apparent that the cylindrical objects 25 rest against both sides of these beams and, since these beams carry less weight than the other beams because of their elevated positions, it is acceptable that the cylindrical objects 25 contact corner regions 20a and 22a of these beams.

In order to change the levels of the beams for accommodation of cylindrical objects of different sizes, it is only necessary to remove the nuts and bolts, or other fasteners, and adjust the level of the beams to align with other openings 13 along the upright members 4, 5 and 6. They can again be fastened, as previously described.

It should be evident that a double bay rack support has been provided employing common center beam supports 20, 21 and 22 which serve to support cylindrical 3 objects placed in both of the bays. One of the specific bays 26 is that defined between the beams 14, 15, 16 and 20, 21, 22, and the other bay 27 is defined between the beams 20, 21, 22 and 17, 18, 19. It is also significant that each of the beams 20, 21 and 22 supports a cylindrical object as a back wall of a bay Would otherwise support it and the horizontal distances between one of these beams 20 and its adjacent beam 17, as an example, supporting one of the articles 25 is less than the diameter of the object 25 so that both of the beams 20 and 17 support the weight of the object 25. By proper adjustment of the height of each of the center beams 20, 21 and 22 with its corresponding other beam in a bay for supporting a row of objects 25, it is possible to suitably 'support different diameter objects in two bays in back to back position without any interference of the objects from one bay to the other.

With the simple structure shown and described it is possible to efiiciently store tires and other round or cylindrical objects of different diameters at a variety of elevations, adjustable at will, in a single rack structure at low cost because of the minimum number of components and amounts of materials required.

If only a single bay is required, the end members 2 and 3 can be made with only two out of three of the upright members 4, 5 and 6 and suitably braced and combined with the center beams 20, 21, 22 and with said outer beams 14, 15, 16 or 17, 18, 19. Further, although three levels are shown, the rack is capable of being arranged with any number of levels provided a suitable number of beams is employed and the upright end members 2 and 3 are of suitable length.

For the purpose of intermixing storage of generally cylindrical or round objects with shelf storage of objects of other shapes, the structure can be modified as shown in FIG. 4. There, the upright members or vertical columns 5 and 6 are provided with horizontal beams 19 and 22 as before, but upright member 4 is provided with a horizontal beam 28 similar in shape to horizontal beam 22 with its square angular orientation with respect to its end plate 28a, rather than at an angle as shown for beam 19. Further, beams 28 and 22 are positioned along their upright members 4 and 5 at the same vertical level in order to accommodate a shelf 30 bridging horizontally between the beams 28 and 22. The shelf 30 can accommodate objects, such as 31, which are different than generally cylindrical or round which cannot be readily supported by bridging between two beams as can the objects 25.'By suitably arranging beams and other shelves like shelf 30 in various arrangements with beams for supporting cylindrical objects, it is possible to provide a versatile two bay storage rack for the convenient storage of many combinations of shelf and beam bridging stored products.

Although only a single embodiment of the invention has been shown and described, it should be apparent that the invention can be manufactured in many different ways without departing from the true scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.

side vertical rows and a middle vertical row between them so that the structure is divided into two back to back bays with the middle row of horizontal beams defining a common inside vertical border of both bays, one of the horizontal beams of said middle vertical row of horizontal beams being elevated above the level of an adjacent horizontal beam on one of the outside vertical rows of horizontal beams, whereby an object being supported by the two mentioned horizontal beams will be cradled on them with the larger weight portion of an object being carried by the horizontal beam of the ouside vertical row.

2. A support structure as defined by claim 1 characterized by, the horizontal beams of said middle vertical r-ow being oriented in alignment with a vertical plane and the horizontal beams of said outside vertical rows being oriented angularly with respect to said vertical plane.

3. A support structure comprising spaced end frames connected together by horizontal beams, the horizontal beams being connected to the end frames along two outside vertical rows and a middle vertical row between them so that the structure is divided into two hack to back bays with the middle row of horizontal beams defining a common inside vertical border of both bays, the horizontal spacing of adjacent horizontal beams being less than the diameters of the objects to be supported by the structure so that two adjacent horizontal beams can sup port the objects by having the objects bridging between the two beams, the vertical positioning of the horizontal beams being vertically adjustable relative to each other along the end frames so that a first of the horizontal beams of the middle row of horizontal beams can be moved to a level different than the level of an adjacent second horizontal beam mounted along an outside vertical row of horizontal beams, whereby an object supported between them will be cradled with more of the weight of the object being carried by one of the two of said first and second horizontal beams.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,075,801 10/1913 Waters 221-23 1,133,598 3/1915 Winslow 2l123 2,962,170 11/1960 Best 211182 3,045,834 7/1962 Seiz 211-148 FOREIGN PATENTS 1,151,942 8/1957 France.

CHANCELLOR E. HARRIS, Primary Examiner.

ROY D. FRAZIER, Examiner.

W. D. LOULAN, Assistant Examiner. 

1. A SUPPORT STRUCTURE COMPRISING SPACED ENDS FRAMES CONNECTED TOGETHER BY HORIZONTAL BEAMS, THE HORIZONTAL BEAMS BEING CONNECTED TO THE END FRAMES ALONG TWO OUTSIDE VERTICAL ROWS AND A MIDDLE VERTICAL ROW BETWEEN THEM SO THAT THE STRUCTURE IS DIVIDED INTO TWO BACK TO BACK COMMON INSIDE VERTICAL BORDER OF BOTH BAYS, ONE OF THE HORIZONTAL BEAMS OF SAID MIDDLE VERTICAL ROW OF HORIZONTAL BEAMS BEING ELEVATED ABOVE THE LEVEL OF AN ADJACENT HORIZONTAL BEAM ON ONE OF THE OUTSIDE VERTICAL ROWS OF 